Oklahoma Documentary Filmmaker to Broadcast on HBO

OklaFilm & OklaMusic
Monday, June 1, 2009




HBO Documentary Films has acquired Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo by the award-winning Oklahoma documentary filmmaker, Bradley Beesley. The film’s broadcast premiere is scheduled for September on HBO’s Cinemax. The documentary made its world premiere at the 2009 South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas.

According to Beesley, “There’s no better place than HBO to share our documentary – it’s a perfect home.” From behind prison walls, Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo exposes the drive behind female inmates fighting for one of their only means of pride, in a world where they have little left.

The film captures the second year female inmates are allowed to participate in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary Rodeo. “I’m truly thrilled for the women featured in the film – their remarkable stories made this possible,” said Beesley. The Oklahoma State Penitentiary Rodeo has been an Oklahoma tradition since 1940. Part Wild West show and part Coliseum-esque spectacle, the rodeo is part of Oklahoma’s history that remained largely unchanged until the addition of women to the rodeo.

The film was produced and filmed by Oklahomans and FieldGuide Media Group founders James Payne and Alan Novey. Bradley Beesley also directed The Fearless Freaks, a documentary about the Oklahoma based band, The Flaming Lips; Summer Camp!; and the award-winning 2001 film, Okie Noodling, a documentary about the Oklahoma tradition of hand fishing.

In an unprecedented event, the film will screen to the entire women’s inmate population inside the Eddie Warrior Correctional Center on June 9, 2009. The film will also kick off the 9th annual deadCENTER Film Festival with an outdoor screening on June 10 at 9 p.m. as well as a screening at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art at 5:30 p.m. on June 12.

For more information about Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo, please visit www.sweetheartsoftheprisonrodeo.com